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CHAPTER ELEVEN
only you
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( the sacrifice )

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Harper's POV.

*Harper's House*

"Harper!" my mother's voice calls from downstairs.

I immediately run down the stairs to see what she wants, having no idea what she could want from me on a school morning. If she wants to see me before it's time for us to leave, then it must be important.

I find her at the front door, and I'm surprised to see Stefan standing out on the front porch. I look between them in confusion.

"Stefan offered to take you to school today. Isn't that sweet of him?" My mother smiles.

"Oh." I look behind her at Stefan, still very much confused. There's no way this is just a friendly gesture.

"Go get your stuff so he doesn't have to wait," she urges, gesturing with her hand for me to go back upstairs.

I do as she says and head back up to my room. After putting my backpack on, I rush back downstairs. "All ready," I announce once I reach the bottom. I walk past my mother to join Stefan out on the porch.

"Have a good day, dear. And thanks again, Stefan," my mother says she closes the door behind us.

We start walking down the steps towards—shoot—Damon's car?!

"I'm guessing by now you've realized this isn't just a friendly favor," Stefan says from beside me.

I spot Damon sitting in the driver's seat.

"Yeah, I figured."

*Elena's House*

"You don't believe her, do you?" Elena asks from her spot leaning against the wall.

I'm leaning against the wall adjacent to her while Stefan and Damon face us from behind the kitchen island.

"No, of course not. We just want the moonstone," Damon says as he absentmindedly tosses an orange back and forth between his hands.

"According to Rose's friend Slater, there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break," Stefan explains.

"No spell, no doppelgänger sacrifice. Ergo, you two live," Damon says.

Elena crosses her arms. "How do you destroy it?"

Stefan leans down on his arms against the island. "By releasing it from the moonstone."

Elena moves closer to them. "How do you guys even know this is gonna work?" she asks.

"Because we have a crafty witch on our side," Damon responds.

Elena leans against the island with her hands. "You discussed it with Bonnie."

"She agreed to do anything she could to help us," Stefan informs while looking up at Elena from his leaned position.

"It's Katherine who has the moonstone. She's not gonna give it to you," Elena reminds.

"We're gonna get it from her," Stefan says confidently.

"How?" I ask, speaking up for the first time from my position against the wall.

"We are going to pry it from her cold, dead hand if we have to," Damon responds.

"Bonnie just needs to find a way to release the seal long enough for us to get in, get the moonstone, and get out in time for her to return it," Stefan explains.

Elena plops down in a chair beside the island. "Wow, I mean, it sounds like you guys already have it all planned out," she says somewhat passive-aggressively.

I have no idea what her problem is. Stefan and Damon have just found a way to save our lives. We should be celebrating for goodness sakes!

"Yep, we're awesome." Damon gives himself two thumbs up.

I smile at his antics, and he notices, smiling brightly at me in return.

My heart rate speeds up.

"Except for one thing," Elena speaks up, pulling me back to planet earth. "I don't want you to do it."

I whip my head in her direction. "Wait, what?!" I spit out.

Stefan looks back at Damon who returns his confused look before returning his focus back on Elena. "What are you talking about? Elena, we don't have a choice."

"What about Klaus?" Elena asks.

"We'll find him right after we get the moonstone," Stefan assures.

"Is that before or after he kills everyone that we care about? Including the two of you." She points to both Stefan and Damon.

"Elena, if we can de-spell the moonstone, we can save your lives," Stefan reminds.

"I know. Everybody keeps saying that." Elena gets up and leaves the room.

Stefan and Damon share another confused look.

"It's like she wants to die," Damon comments.

"I don't know what's going on with her," I say looking down toward the hallway to wherever Elena went. "I'm gonna go talk to her."

It doesn't take me very long to find her. The first place I look is upstairs, and, sure enough, I find the door to her room closed.

I knock on the door four times just loud enough for her to hear.

"Who is it?" Elena calls out.

"Hey, it's just me. Can we talk?"

A beat of silence. "Come in."

I open the door to find Elena putting on a black jacket. "Where are you going?" I ask mindlessly as I shut the door behind me. Then the obvious answer to my question hits me. She's getting ready for school, duh. Why did I even ask such a stupid question?

She finishes zipping up her jacket, leaving just the top open. "I'm going to school," she answers plainly.

"Oh yeah, right, I figured," I say quickly to hide my embarrassment for asking such a dumb question. I move closer to her. "Um, can we maybe talk?"

"Did Stefan and Damon send you?" she questions accusingly.

"No, no, I came of my own will," I assure.

"Look. If you're trying to convince me to be okay with everyone risking their lives for us, I just can't, okay? You heard what Katherine said. Klaus is going to go after everyone we love if we don't obey him."

"Yeah, but he doesn't even know we exist," I remind.

"We don't know that—" She stops herself short, exhaling a breath. "You know what? Never mind. Do you—do you need a ride to school?"

And just like that, the subject has been dropped. I'm not the type of person to push someone farther than they're willing to go.

"Yeah, I do."

*Outside Mystic Falls High School*

Caroline and I walk side-by-side towards the picnic tables for our off-campus study hall.

"You told Tyler you're a vampire!," I whisper-hiss in shock.

Caroline doesn't even bother to keep her volume down. "He ambushed me! What else was I supposed to do?"

"Maybe not tell Tyler you're a vampire."

"I know, but it's okay. He doesn't know about anyone else, just me. He also doesn't know that you know about me, so you can't say anything," she says seriously.

"I wasn't going to," I assure.

Matt approaches from in front of us. Neither one of us were paying enough attention to our surroundings to notice.

"Matt," Caroline sputters.

"Hey," he says in return, looking at both of us.

"Hey," I greet.

"How are you?" Caroline asks, composing herself.

"I—I've been better," he admits honestly.

I'll never be able to forgive Katherine for compelling Matt to almost kill himself, her tragic past be darned.

Realizing that Caroline and Matt might want to talk to each other alone, I say, "I'm gonna go get us a table" before walking away. Normally, I would stay to talk to Matt but that conversation felt like it needed to be between the two ex-lovers alone. I can talk to Matt about how he's doing later.

After passing Tyler shooting baskets at the old basketball hoop, I find an open picnic table and lean my backpack down on the ground beside it. I take a seat and turn my head to watch Caroline and Matt. However, they're no longer talking. Instead, Caroline is now talking to Tyler.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to start on my Precal homework then.

*Later That Night in Harper's Bedroom*

He was silent for a moment, staring out the window into the rain; I imagined he was contemplating the fact that his family's presence was turning the locals into giant dogs . . .

"Please don't tell me you're Team Jacob."

I jump at the sudden voice causing me to accidentally close my copy of Twilight: Eclipse.

"Damon," I sputter, quickly setting the book down on my bed and scrambling out from beneath the covers. I stand up to face him. "What are you—what are you doing here?"

"I didn't want you to have to hear it from anyone else so I came to be the bearer of bad news," he says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Elijah is still alive."

"What? No." I shake my head. "How is that possible? He got stabbed through the heart. He should be dead."

"I don't know, but apparently Originals aren't as easy to kill as we thought," he says, his mouth tightening.

Overcome by panic, I start pacing around my room. "What are we gonna do? If we can't even kill a minor Original, how are we going to kill Klaus?"

"Well, I'm gonna tell you what you're not going to do," Damon says. "Do you know what your cousin did today?"

I whip my head in his direction. "What?"

"She went on a crazy kamikaze mission and almost got herself killed."

"She did what?!" I yell.

"Rose told me Elena had her take her to Richmond. Rose thought she just wanted to find out more about Klaus, but apparently all your cousin wanted was to get in contact with Klaus so she could turn herself in."

"Why would she do that?" I ask with a wrinkled brow.

Damon scoffs. "I don't know. To save all of us." He shrugs.

"Well, she's okay now, right?" I ask, slightly worried.

"Yeah, like I care," he responds bluntly.

A little anger boils in my stomach. Damon has never expressed any concern for anyone except for Stefan and, well, me, I guess.

My resentment must show on my face because the next thing Damon says is, "Oh, don't look at me like that."

I say nothing. 

He walks closer. "Let me be clear about something," he says. "If it comes down to you and Elena, I will gladly let her die." He stops in front of me and clutches my head in his hands. "I will always...choose...you."

My breath gets taken away as heat rises to my face. My eyes flicker to his lips for a moment. So soft, so smooth, so kissable. All he would have to do is lean in and—

"Good night, Harper."

A gust of air blows my hair back before I hear my bedroom window open and close.

He's gone.

I run to my window and look out at the dark street. Damon is no where to be seen. With a sigh, I turn around and sit on the windowsill, leaning my head back against the glass.

I like Damon a lot more than I let on, but we can't be together, for so many reasons. He's dangerous and impulsive, the kind of guy my mother would never approve of. Not to mention, older. I'm not even allowed to date yet until I turn eighteen. He's rude, vain, and cocky, all the things that should have turned me away a long time ago and, yet, here I am, unable to get him off my mind.

Lord, help me.

https://youtu.be/aOIQvibl1Tg

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a/n:

Just a little Halloween update for you all :)

-- roxy

( word count: 1.9k )